Under the direction of Jim Bakker, the “Praise the Lord/People that Love” (PTL) organization developed into a multi-million dollar religious empire by 1987 that included a television network, contemporary campgrounds with vast amenities, and a church. The opulent lifestyle of Bakker and his wife, Tammy Faye, alleged misappropriation of ministry funds, and the details of a 20-minute sexual encounter between Bakker and Jessica Hahn, drew local media attention, which led to national media attention. The extreme and unique PTL scandal involved complex communication surrounding a series of events. The qualitative study herein historically situates the lived experiences of select participants against the backdrop of media documents about the PTL scandal within a three-month time period beginning March 19, 1987, through June 1987. Various perspectives about the PTL organization identify money, sex, and power as root causes of the events that led up to the PTL media scandal. To construct a phenomenological synthesis about the PTL scandal and give lessons learned about communication from the scandal, a three-step methodological approach was used: collecting the data, identifying key themes in the data (interviews and media documents) using a conceptual cluster matrix, and analyzing these themes via Moustakas' transcendental phenomenological model. Focusing on the convergence of media and religion within contemporary culture, the stories of participants who lived through the experience (the phenomenon) of the PTL scandal along with the media's representation of the phenomenon were analyzed as a means of constructing meaning about the communicative behavior as well as identifying lessons learned about communication for ministers.